EBay and other dot-com companies have been in business for ten years. Here is an excerpt from the article, Happy e-birthdays, in the Economist.

In their brief history, most online businesses have found profits harder to come by than publicity. Many early stars crumbled to dust (remember Webvan, pets.com and Boo.com?), and Amazon's string of losses (which touched $1.4 billion in 2000) only turned to profits in 2003. Though quarterly results this week from eBay, Yahoo! and Google show their already healthy profits to be growing strongly, none of today's online successes feels able to rest on its laurels. Each is trying to move beyond its original source of revenue—selling books and an ever-growing list of other goods (Amazon); auctions (eBay); online advertising (Yahoo!); and “contextual” advertising (Google)—by adopting the successful strategies of its rivals. (Economist.com, 07/21/05.)

I remember how I tried to access Boo.com, a clothing store in cyberspace... Do you have any special memory from the early start of the e-commerce era?

Thanks to Ben & Camilla for getting Brian P. Simpson's book, Markets Don't Fail!, at the Objectivist conference in San Diego. I have now read the first chapter, Capitalism, Socialism, and the Mixed Economy. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction.

This book will show that the arguments claiming market failure fail to provide a critique of the market. The only thing these arguments prove is that some people accept false ideas and use these ideas to mistakenly claim that markets fail. I will defend the market against attacks concerning monopoly and the antitrust laws, predatory pricing, "externalities;" the regulation of safety and quality, environmentalism, economic inequality, "public goods," and asymmetric information. Not only will I defend the market from an economic standpoint, I will provide a moral and epistemological defense of the market as well. The first step in doing this is to provide a description of the nature of three types of political/economic systems: capitalism, socialism, and the mixed economy (or welfare state). (Page 3.)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

After reading Nick Lindauer's post, Frostbite Hot Sauce, on how to mix this spicy stuff in drinks, I thought it could be a fun thing to introduce you to a strange drink made by black licorice candy and vodka. It is called Salmiakki Koskenkorva in Finland.

Apart from that, the player is free to do whatever they want. The player can just explore the city, cause death and destruction amid the traffic in the city, or steal and sell cars for profit, although completing a level will almost certainly require the completion of missions. (Answers.com)

You are welcome to give me suggestions on good strategic and simulation computer games to Linux.

I have mixed feelings about the phrase "War on Terrorism." On the one hand, "terrorism" names a tactic distinctive to our current enemy that reflects the Islamists' basic political goals: the use of mass murder to terrorism unbelievers. On the other hand, it tends to focus our attention on the specific groups who employ the tactic of terrorism, not on the governments and ideological movements that support them.

Here is a sign that some of that confusion is being cleared up: a Pentagon report that no longer name "terrorism" as the target in this war, naming "Islamist extremism" instead--a term that has its own problems but at least identifies the enemy in terms of his ideas. But it does not seem to focus on the role of states who sponsor terrorism: Iran and Syria. (TIADaily.com, 07/26/05.)

CRIER COMMENT: here it comes; the cowardly, mealy-mouthed change from what was not even a declaration of war -- and what a pathetic non-war this religious government has waged -- to a vague, non-military struggle against extremism, which is a turn against America's own extremist philosophical foundation of inalienable individual rights. War on Terror was bad enough. Now we must adopt the language of our enemies. (Jihad means struggle in Arabic.) Upshot of this major policy shift: We are no longer pretending to be fighting a war -- we will not fight back -- there will be no military retribution for Black Tuesday. (The Concord Crier, 07/27/05.)

Those of us who, physically, cannot cycle 2,000 miles or run the 100 meters in 9 seconds can still aspire to significant achievements. The vision of Armstrong's magnificent abilities and dauntless determination engenders in the best of us the questions: What might I accomplish in my field and in my life if I embodied the same degree of dedication? How high might I go in my own life-promoting endeavors if I put into them the identical indefatigable qualities of spirit that Armstrong does? (AmericanDaily.com, 07/25/05.)

Looking at Little Green Footballs, I think it could be a good idea to start to publish an open thread post on Mondays. I want to get feedback from my readers on recent posts, tips and suggestions on material for future posts. Here is the weekly "schedule" in general:

Welcome all to my oubliette, and the 70th edition of the Carnival of the Cats. For those of you who are return visitors, you are familiar with the somewhat cramped conditions. For those of you who are visiting for the first time, an oubliette takes some getting used to, but I think with a little shuffling we can find enough space for everyone. I've lit some extra candles so you don't have to worry about stepping on any of the resident kitties. There should be plenty of refreshments for all, human and feline alike. So, get comfortable, make yourselves at home, and enjoy the show. ...

Earlier this week, I was sent a list of Theories of Cat Behavior. While this research may be incomplete, I will be indicating which theories are illustrated in each post. To make things simpler, I present you with the current list for your reference: ...

LAW OF CAT MOTION:A cat will move in a straight line, unless there is a really good reason to change direction. ...

Martin Lindeskog at EGO informs everyone that MORRIS WANTS TO COME IN. Indeed he does, and is a great example of the Law of Cat Motion. (TheOubliette.blogspot.com, 07/24/05.)

The free trial period of the neo-counter is over and they have now displayed the total amount of visitors since I added the counter two weeks ago. I am not sure that I will list all countries in the future, but as fan of Eddie Izzard, I will show the list for some time. This is a quote from his history sketch from the show, Dress to Kill, in San Francisco (a.k.a "city of snakes") in 1999.

So, yeah. There was a lot of that, and we built up empires - we stole countries! That's what you do, that's how you build an empire. We stole countries with the cunning use of flags! Yeah, just sail around the world and stick a flag in. (AuntieMomo.com, "Cake or Death".)

Indeed, ad sales on Google-owned sites generated $737 million in the quarter, or 53 percent of total revenues and a 115 percent boost over a year ago. On Google's partner sites, the company's AdSense programs generated $630 million, or 46 percent of total revenues and an 82 percent increase over the same quarter last year. (InformationWeek.com, 07/21/05.)

Have I lost my own brand ("Me, Inc."), by having ads on EGO blog? Dave Winer thinks so:

A blog without ads is itself an ad, interesting to a small number of people. Blogs with ads, like their print counterparts, strive to be as broad as possible, to reach as many people, and in doing so, lose their value as an ad for the author. (Scripting.com, 07/20/05.)

Next up, BlogAds Founder Henry Copeland describe the BlogAds advertising network and it's 17 targeted mini-networks which consist of topically similar weblogs packaged and a small ad network. Copeland asked the audience to participate in a clapping exercise whereby the audience began clapping and then moved to a rhythmic clap demonstrating how big media isn't needed any longer to control how information and conversations take place on the internet. Blogs have removed much of the control big media has enjoyed for years and has placed it squarely in the hands of the individual. (Adrants.com/, 07/12/05.)

I have several different types of advertising from different companies on my blog, e.g., Blogads, AdSense, Linkshare, ValueClick, and BlogKits. The latest addition is CripsAds' graphical banner ads with an automatic featue that switch over to cost-per-clicks text ads.

It's only a matter of time before micropayment systems become firmly established in this country, internet penetration reaches the furthest corners of America, and mainstream media finally cracks and opens the floodgates. Wouldn't it be cool, then, if a U.S. media company were to incorporate a citizen journalism system into one of its properties? If, say, 40,000 citizen journalists were to contribute half of the New York Times' online content? (OhmyNews.com, 07/08/05.)

Aswat is one of two al-Masri associates who are referred to but not named or charged in the indictment of Ujaama by a federal grand jury in Seattle, officials said. The other is Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, who was found guilty of weapons violations in Sweden in 2003. (ThisIsLondon.co.uk, 07/23/05.)

The corporate Establishment's new hunger for the undocumenteds' business could have far-reaching implications for America's stance on immigration policy, which remains unresolved. Corporations are helping, essentially, to bring a huge chunk of the underground economy into the mainstream. By finding ways to treat illegals like any other consumers, companies are in effect legalizing -- and legitimizing -- millions of people who technically have no right to be in the U.S (BusinessWeek.com, 07/18/05.)

Friday, July 22, 2005

Welcome to the 49th edition of the Carnival of the Recipes, a collection of recipes from some of the best cooks and bloggers in the blogosphere. It's been almost six months since the last time I've hosted the Carnival and I've got to admit it was a lot easier this time around. Please look around while you're here. ...

If you can judge by this post, Cajun food is as popular in Sweden as it is here. Martin Lindeskog of EGO cooks up some Hickory-Smoked Cajun Shish Kebab. (TheGlitteringEye.com, 07/22/05.)

In referencing the above editorial, TIA Daily's Robert Tracinski further noted what is needed to combat multiculturalism:

[Steyn's] most profound point is that "you can't assimilate with a nullity." "Britishness" has to be about more than superficial details of lifestyle. Britain has to decide what *ideas* it stands for -- and as with the rest of Europe, this is a task for which British culture is unprepared. This is the great advantage that America has: we don't have to search for a non-racial identity, because we are a nation explicitly founded on an idea.

America can provide a model from which Europe needs to learn. Or, in the case of Britain, they can look back to the models from which America learned, from the Magna Carta to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Enlightenment ideas that inspired it. (CoxAndForkum.com, 07/20/05.)

Do you want to join an ad network of Europeans who have a pro-American sentiment? We want to start a conversation between bloggers and advertisers who value the Americana sense-of-life and individuals who have an intellectual bond with the Anglosphere. We want to create a special relationship between the Anglophile in the United States of America and the American in spirit. We welcome people who are critical against the Eurocrats, but at same time are "Eurocentric" and defenders of the New World and Western civilization. (EGO, 07/19/05.)

I am curious to learn more about John G. Roberts's view on this issue. Could you tell me why the members of the U.S. Supreme Court are holding their position indefinitely? What was the reasoning for establish job security for a lifetime, instead of limiting the work contract to a maximum amount of years?

This Mark Steyn column is worthwhile just for one sentence alone: "the real suicide bomb is multiculturalism"--a line so good I wish I had thought of it. This is more evidence that the main ideological casualty of the London bombings will be the shield of political correctness that has suppressed conservative criticism of multiculturalism. (TIADaily.com, 07/19/05.)

Yesterday I saw a scary news segment on Hizb ut-Tahrir's activities in Denmark. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Jalaluddin Patel, leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK.

JP: Islam calls all regimes that do not implement Islam Dar al-Kufr (unbelivers' countries). Therefore from this perspective, the Iranian regime, like the other regimes, needs to be replaced by the Khilafah system. (Jamestown.org, 08/11/04.)

Monday, July 18, 2005

Do you want to track the missing link? Go to the List of Referrers category for the top five outgoing links. This service is powered by MyBlogLog.com. From the Help page:

MyBlogLog enables you to track that last little bit of information about your website. You probably already know where your users are coming from and you probably already know what pages they're looking at while they're there. However, if you have a blog or any other site where you frequently post new content on the main page, you don't have a good way of tracking what people find interesting. One way is to track when people click on the links you provide. Up until now, outbound link tracking has been a pain in the butt, requiring CGIs and managed links. MyBlogLog makes this process easy. (MyBlogLog.com)

You could check my blog's public stats, if you click on the button under the About category. If you want to sign up for the service, click on the button under the Support category.

I am planning to write a post on Islamist groups in London, Scandinavia, and the rest of Europe. I will post a list of links of interesting articles by different authors, e.g., Hitchens, Leeden, and Steyn. Could you call the holy war of Jihad a starting point of the WWIII? How about ending the battle by taking out the HQ of terrorism?

I want to mention that the podcasting project is moving along. I had an interesting discussion with Prodos the other day. Please stay tuned! I plan to start the show in August or September.

The company, which will mark just its third anniversary next month, now arranges ads for self-organized networks of bloggers who sell blocs of space geared toward certain audiences. The current options include the Law Blog Ad Network and the Political Insider Ad Network, which includes blogs as diverse as D.C.'s Political Report, Political Wire, PoliPundit, Talking Points Memo and Wonkette. (Beltwayblogroll.nationaljournal.com, 07/18/05.)

The dinner yesterday was a culinary feast with the "ultimate" steak, shish kebab, and blackberry cake.

I had to test the recipe for the ultimate steak from the latest issue of Bon Appétit magazine. Go to Nick Lindauer's Hot Sauce Blog for the recipe ingredients and directions. I followed the recipe with a few exceptions. I was informed by the butcher's that you can't buy T-bone steak in Sweden at the moment, due to the mad cow disease. I purchased entrecôte instead. I followed Mr. Lindauer's suggestion and used a blue cheese from Spain, instead of gorgonzola. We served the cheese on a baguette (Hungarian type with coarse salt on the top) as a side dish, instead of putting the steak on a ciabatta.

You've got a ton of brain power, and you leverage it into brilliant blog.Both creative and logical, you come up with amazing ideas and insights.A total perfectionist, you find yourself revising and rewriting posts a lot of the time.You blog for yourself - and you don't care how popular (or unpopular) your blog is!

Thursday, July 14, 2005

This new VoIP gizmo could be the solution on how to save internet phone calls and turn them into a podcast session / audio blog post. With this problem solved, I could start doing "talk (radio)" blogging in the near future. I hope that the Linux version of the Gizmo Project will be released in August as planned. When do you think Microsoft will launch a similar program?

Listen to An Audioblogging Manifesto by Maciej Ceglowski. [Via Blogspotting.] I look forward to your input and suggestions on the future show. Please contact me if you are interested in participating in one way or another. As a preparation for the show I will soon have a chat with Prodos about his Rational Voice project. Here are some things to think about:

Monday, July 11, 2005

Before I post something on the WWII anniversary, the al-Qaeda recruits in Great Britain, and the never ending story on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts, I have to take a short summer pause and reflect on "purple cows" and my upcoming traffic milestone (100,000 visits).

One of my hobby projects this summer is to create a scrapbook with photos from my school project in Hungary. I will show it to my classmates at our reunion in September. My tomato, paprika and chile pepper plants are reminding me about the time in Sopron. Here is an excerpt from Lynette Evans's article, Hungarian peppers keep dishes comfortably warm.

In Hungary, we had seen bunches of long red paprika pods hanging on the walls of houses and apartment buildings alike. The Hungarian paprika is the basis for many regional dishes, but as Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach note in "The Whole Chile Pepper Book" (Little, Brown, 1990): "Bright red Paprika pods are not the only chiles popular in central Europe. Also proliferating in the region are yellow Wax varieties, which appear both fresh and pickled. The mild or sweet variety is the Banana pepper, as it is known in the United States; its fiery cousin is called the Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot. These yellow peppers, which run from pale yellow to red-orange at maturity, are particularly devious because their gorgeous golden appearance can signal either heat or sweetness to the shopper, and it is impossible to tell them apart without tasting." (Sfgate.com, 07/09/05.)

If you want to follow the development, go to my other blog for a link to my updated photo gallery.

Lacking a means to attract the 10-to-20 million users needed to turn a profit, Plaxo was running out of money. The company had $20 million when it started in 2001 and, by my estimation, is now down to $10 million or less. Yes, it could have cruised on that money for a while, but finding at least 7 million new users would have been much too expensive without big help.

Enter the big helper: AOL will offer Plaxo's free contact list management tools to its zillions of members. If a reasonable percentage of AOL members decide to use the service, Plaxo will reach critical mass. (Eweek, 07/07/05.)

At the moment I am using a Filofax for my addresses, but as a long-time user of a personal handheld organiser called Psion, I am interested in looking into a new universal digital assistant. Former Google employee, Mark Jen, has a song and dance lecture in his post, What is Plaxo? I have signed up only for Plaxo's online version, because I can't use Outlook on my computer. I have read some critical voices regarding Plaxo's product, but I think it could be a good network tool, if you use it in the right way. I think I could benefit from it when I am traveling around. Talking about journeys, I got an invitation to join Where Are You Now?

After the raids on university dormitories on July 9, 1999 which sparked nationwide student protests in Iran, Iranian youth have marked the anniversary of the student uprisings by taking to the streets and saying "no" to the Iranian regime in its entirety. Each year thousands of students are brutally suppressed, injured and arrested in these demonstrations. (USNewswire.com, 07/08/05.)

Iranian students will commemorate the legacy of the 1999 Students' Uprising by gathering inside and in front of the Iranian universities despite any official ban.

In addition, thousands of Iranians are expected to come into streets and squares of most Iranian cities or on their roof tops and to condemn the Islamic regime in another show of rejection of the theocracy. They will also cherish the legacy of the "Epic of the Students Uprising of July 9, 1999". (RegimeChangeIran.com / SMCCDI, 07/04/05.)

I went to the city of Gothenburg to see if I could find any Iranians. I found a couple of people at Gustaf Adolf's square. It looked like I had missed the protest rally. They told me that it had been around 200 people gathered, including representatives from all different parties and organizations. I gave a copy of the 18 Tir cartoon to one of the demonstrators. Right before they left the square, one of the Iranians gave me a leaflet. It was issued by the Worker-Communist Party of Iran. Here is an excerpt from the leaflet:

The murder of innocent people in London is another instance in the race of terrorists, which began on September 11 on the world stage between Islamic states and movements on the one hand and western states led by the United States on the other. Both are armed to the teeth and feeding off each other. In the meanwhile, the victims of this war and slaughter are only innocent and ordinary people. (WPIran.org.)

We should hope that this group will not be in charge after the mullahs have been kicked out...

Friday, July 8, 2005

I have added a pretty geeky thing to the About category. My blogger code is: "B9 t- k+ s+ u f i- o x e+ l c--." Click here if you want to decode the cryptic message. I didn't answer the second question ("domain quotient"), because I couldn't find this alternative: "I own 1 domain, but I have my own web addresses at blogspot, diaryland, livejournal, or other similar site." Maybe this alternative should be graded as [d+-]...

Thursday, July 7, 2005

This drink is dedicated to the individuals who are fighting for a regime change in Iran. For a background, read my post, MULLAHS AGAINST MARTIN(I). I picked the lime fruit as a play with words. The synonym for lime (linden) is a part of my last name.

Put ice cubes, vermouth, gin, and lime juice in a highball glass. Stir with a spoon. [Editor's comment: I wonder what James Bond will think about this method...] Add soda water and a lime wedge. Serve the drink with a straw.

They reveal a thinker, clever and cunning, who details how he fooled locals and the feds during five years on the lam; an egoist who sees himself and his plight in the books that now take up his days; a zealot, unapologetic in his disgust for abortion and the government; a son who seems to deeply regret what his family has endured. (USAToday.com, 07/05/05.)

The Webmaster of the site, Donald Spitz, a minister whose site also includes photographs of aborted fetuses, said Friday that he had been writing to Mr. Rudolph in jail for months, and that Mr. Rudolph had mailed him the 21-page handwritten account. (NYTimes.com, 06/26/05.)

A group calling itself "Secret Organization — al-Qaeda in Europe" has posted a claim of responsibility for the series of blasts in London, a German magazine reported Thursday.

Der Spiegel magazine reported that the group posted its message on a Web site popular with Islamic militants, which it did not name. It said the group claimed the explosions were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. (USAToday.com, 07/07/05.)

The terror threat is coming closer to home. Could Denmark be al-Qaeda's next target? From the Copenhagen Post:

"Danish-Moroccan Said Mansour, who has been linked to the Danish national currently facing a death sentence in Algeria for acts of terrorism, has been sentenced to three months in jail by Copenhagen District Court for unlawful possession of arms, document fraud and dealing in stolen property." (EGO, 03/14/04.)

Here is the last paragraph from Robert Tracinski's article, "Victory in Spite of Terror" (What Blair Needs to Say--and Europe Needs to Do).

The worst conclusion our leaders could draw would be the one that I am certain will soon be pushed by the left: that today's attacks were the result of being too aggressive in confronting Islamic terrorism. On the contrary, these attacks were the result of the West continuing to pull its punches and hold back the use of force against the remaining terrorist regimes in Iran and Syria. That is the lesson to be learned from the attacks on London. (TIADaily.com, 07/07/05.)

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Most times you are proud to be an American.Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringeStill, you know there's no place better suited to be your home.You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you!

I have been thinking a bit more on how do make podcasting blog sessions in the future. It would be great to conduct interviews with interesting individuals and have conversations with fellow bloggers. Jim Logan has written a short and sweet post (Laymen's Quick Start Guide to Podcasting) with a checklist on what you need for converting phone interviews into podcasts. [Via Blog Business World.]